The Fandomentals

First Look at Blade Runner 2049

File this one under “cautiously optimistic.” The original Blade Runner is a cult classic of the 1980s, a movie whose design and world influenced many sci-fi franchises to follow. While the book it loosely adapted, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (READ IT), may be a longstanding classic, time rarely treats movies so kindly. After more than 30 years one can’t help but wonder at making a sequel now.

Though the talent involved and this trailer certainly help.

Set 30 years after the original, fittingly enough, Blade Runner 2049 features a new blade runner, special police operatives tasked with “retiring” androids that defy a ban for them to return to Earth. This new blade runner unearths a secret which may plunge society into chaos, requiring him to seek out Rick Deckard, protagonist of the first film who went missing after the events of the film. The trailer gives us a look at Ryan Gosling as this new protagonist and good old Harrison Ford’s return as Deckard. Here’s hoping this return to a classic character goes better than another did, though I doubt it.

Fresh off the excellent Arrival, director Denis Villeneuve looks to have the visual style on point. The smoggy cyberpunk feel is here in full effect, and the orange smoggy wasteland leading up to Deckard looks incredible. Johann Johannsson’s score rocks. Just having two of the key figures responsible for one of the better sci-fi movies in recent years makes you hopeful for this movie.

How will it all turn out in the end? We’ll have to wait and see. At least we have good reason to expect something good, which is more than I thought we’d get when I first heard about a Blade Runner sequel.

Blade Runner 2049 is scheduled to arrive on October 6, 2017. In addition to Gosling and Ford, the film also stars Robin Wright, Dave Bautista (a Replicant if ever there was one), Ana de Armas, Mackenzie Davis, Barkhad Abdi, and Jared Leto.